Patent US 5,978,784

A computer-based method for assisting a user in making decisions in the process of completing a task is shown and described. The method of the system includes providing a set of questions for completing the task, asking the user a first question from the set, and providing a choice of answers to the first question. The system also provides advice from its knowledge base for deciding which of the answers to the first question to select. The choice of answer, however, remains under the control of the user, who can exercise judgment based on the user's expertise and the advice provided by the decision management system. The method continues by asking following questions, with the following questions, answers and advice influenced by the user's previous answers. Throughout the decision-making process, the user retains control of the answers if so desired, with the system providing advice from its knowledge base. The system is particularly suited for document assembly in allowing a professional to determine what provisions are suitable for a document to be built from information and judgments provided by the professional and the knowledge base of the system. The system also includes an authoring program for preparing applications that run on the system. Using an intuitive program block approach of the authoring program, an author can construct an application by placing questions, answer choices, advice and textual and logical provisions in named program blocks. The author then assembles and arranges these blocks to build a desired application program.